Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a new adventure game in the same vein as Lego Star Wars. I've had great fun with the recent series of Lego games and since I've always been a fan of Indiana Jones, this is one game I'm excited to play. I've only played one other Indiana Jones game before and that was Desktop Adventures, a fun, randomly generated top-down computer game. Lego Indiana Jones supposedly does not include any content from the newest movie, which doesn't bother me, I thought it was pretty bad honestly. I will be playing the Nintendo DS version of Lego Indiana Jones.

This is my last review for Day 2 of The First Hour. Another 24 hours of video gaming has passed and another 24 will begin soon. All reviews here on the old domain will be moving to firsthour.net and all new reviews will be posted there. That site will consolidate my full review site into it also. I'm really excited for it and I plan to launch it this summer. It will probably be a few weeks though as I have just closed on a house and also have a baby on the way, so it's going to be a busy summer! I'm excited for the future though and still plan to review just the first hour of video games. Heck, that's all I have time for anyway.

Minute by Minute

(minutes are in bold)00 - I select New Game and the first hour of Lego Indiana Jones begins, the classic Indiana Jones theme is playing in the background. Well, the game has started right away: I'm controlling Professor Jones in what appears to be the university he works at when he's not raiding temples. With me is some dude holding an umbrella. I can whip with the A button.

This is as interesting as the bottom screen gets, so I'll cut if off from now on. Credit for images go to Gamespot and IGN.

02 - I've found the shop where I can buy characters, hints, and extras. Not right now , I'll head upstairs and start the first level.

03 - Indy enters the Raiders of the Lost Ark room and then goes through the Lost Temple door... A cutscene begins, Indy is walking through the jungle getting shot at by blow darts while narrowly missing booby traps, his companions aren't so lucky though!

04 - I now have control, looks like I'm in the jungle around the temple.

05 - My little traitorous friend with me uses a shovel instead of a whip. I find a spot where he can dig and by sliding my thumb on the bottom screen, I can dig up some hidden treasure.

06 - Well, it's not buried treasure, just a buried platform. That should help though. Except no one can double jump so I can't get high enough anyway.

07 - Oh it wasn't a platform at all but an object that when destroyed releases bricks Indiana can put together to form the real platform. Convoluted, but that's these Lego games for you.

08 - Indiana Jones can whip himself across pits with the help of me sliding my thumb across the bottom screen, similar to digging with the shovel.

10 - This game feels so much like Lego Star Wars its unbelievable! Almost the same game so far with a different skin.

11 - My first enemy! One of those blow dart natives. I whip him to disarm him of his deadly dart and then beat him down with my fists. Satisfying.

12 - In typical Lego video game logic, I build three giant idols out of bricks and then whip them all to make a bridge appear out of nowhere. Of course!

14 - Just fought two more blow darters, but after disarming them they just stood there... Lousy AI.

15 - I've just collected two artifact treasures, if I collect all 10 in the level something will be unlocked back at the college.

16 - Not sure if this is intentional or not, but Indy can't seem to whip things directly in front of him. I suppose realistically it makes sense, but for a Lego game?

18 - Awesome! Just inflated a rubber raft by blowing into my microphone. Haha, fun stuff. Think I might have found a secret area by taking the raft behind the waterfall... but there's a door that only Scholars can enter. Are you telling me Doctor Jones is not a scholar?

20 - Now there's a red pad that only characters with pet monkeys can use! I want a pet monkey!

21 - What I love about these games is that there's so much crap to destroy. Nearly everything falls to the weight of Indy's fists. Just noticed that you don't have to slide your thumb on the touch screen to do anything cool, just pressing the A button works just as well for whipping and digging.

23 - Had to collect three blue bricks so that I could properly enter the Lost Temple.

24 - A torch puzzle lies before me, I need to do a bunch of whipping with Indy to unlock a torch so that I can light some unlit torches. Get all that?

25 - The hardest part of that puzzle was just picking up the torch! I had to stand in exactly the right spot and slam the A button.

26 - Found a door that only Thuggee characters can enter... what the heck is a Thuggee?

27 - Cool, the blow dart hallway from the movie, I had to navigate Indy onto only green tiles on the floor. Stepping on a red tile shoots a dart and kills me instantly! Thankfully in Lego games you appear again right where you died.

29 - Blowing out torches is fun.

30 - Halfway through and there's been some pretty fun platforming so far. But a total lack of bad guys! I suppose there weren't a lot of baddies running around inside the temple in the movie though...

31 - I find a hole in the wall that only small characters can crawl through. Short Round, where are you when I need you? Oh, I can see the Idol!

33 - A cutscene of Indy grabbing the Idol, just like in the movie, but with Legos!

34 - Everyone knows what happens when Indy grabs the Idol... unleash the giant rolling boulder! I run towards the screen with the boulder behind me following the line of coins to safety. It was pretty funny when my AI partner got rolled up in the boulder and was stuck on it like Katamari Damacy! Hahaha! I'm able to grab the lucrative red brick at the end of the level. Those are always crucial for... something. Extras typically.

35 - After we escape from the boulder, a cutscene starts that is just like the movie. Indiana is forced to hand over the Idol but is able to escape on the plane. I save my game.

36 - Another cutscene of Dr. Jones in his classroom with the girl and her freaky eyes. Creepy...

37 - The cutscene continues and Indiana appears at Marion's bar, somewhere in Nepal I think (disappointing that the game didn't do the classic map scene when traveling). Well, we're right in the action! The Nazis have stormed in!

39 - Marion tosses bottles of alcohol as her weapon! And in one of the coolest things so far, the bottles explode when they're thrown at fire. Awesome!

41 - Some idiot is rolling kegs down the stairs at me like Donkey Kong! Luckily I've played that game before. Found a door that only BOTCS characters can enter. That's an odd one.

43 - Had to use Marion's bottle tossing against that nerdy Nazi who was trying to steal her medallion. Remember in the movie where he burns his hand on it and its symbols get imprinted into his palm? Well, in Lego Indiana Jones he sits on it! That's hilarious.

44 - We escaped the burning bar and Indy and Marion head into the cold Nepalian night.

45 - There sure are a lot of doors and chutes I can't enter. It's kind of annoying, but yet, another staple of Lego Star Wars.

I've ran out of DS screenshots so you'll have to put up with some pretty Xbox 360 screens.

46 - Wow cool, I just found a rifle to shoot with! No more punching!

48 - I love how the game encourages blowing up bottles of alcohol so much.

50 - Now the game just told me to touch gunpowder kegs with lit torches to make them go boom. The Lego Anarchist's Cookbook.

51 - You know, this part of the game wasn't in the movie at all. Didn't they just fast forward to Egypt or something? I don't remember Indy and Marion wandering around outside fending off even more Nazis.

52 - I really wish Indiana could double jump, that would make things much easier.

53 - Wow, Indy just pulled a tree over with his whip. That's one strong professor.

54 - Now I was just instructed on how to detonate dynamite!

56 - Just punched a guy off a cliff. This game is suspiciously violent!

58 - Speaking of violence, I just received a machine gun and started blowing away Nazis, or whatever they call them in this supposed kid friendly game.

60 - A cutscene of Indy and Marion stealing a jeep and that's the end of the second level and the end of the first hour of Lego Indiana Jones!

Now for some scores out of 10.

First Hour Scores

Minutes to Action: 4

Gameplay: 7
One of the great things about Lego Star Wars is the sheer variety of characters available: Jedi, Sith, blaster-wielders, Ewoks, etc. The first hour of Indiana Jones is limited to only three though: Indy with his whip, a native with a shovel, and Marion with her alcohol tossing goodness. I don't really think there's as much potential in the Indiana universe to really go crazy, but maybe they'll surprise me later on. An annoying problem with the controls is that they're not very consistent on the DS. With Indiana, the Y button punches and the A button whips. But with the native, the Y button uses his weapon but the A button doesn't do anything, and the same with Marion, the Y button tosses bottles. And when Indiana picks up a weapon, sometimes the Y button wields it and other times the A button. I was still noticing issues with the controls after an hour so I think it is notable.

Fun Factor: 8
I love these games. Destroying crap with my whip, tossing bottle of alchol in fires, punching guys off cliffs; what isn't there to love? I read earlier that Lucasarts removed any kind of Nazi symbolishm in the game including simply the word Nazi. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but even without Nazis, this game is surprisingly no-holds bar with its action. Nothing graphic of course, but Lego Indiana Jones holds pretty true to the films. Good fun all around.

Graphics and Sound: 8
The game looks great, the developers did an awesome job porting this to the DS. The new explosion effects are particularly impressive, I really don't remember those at all from Lego Star Wars. The cutscenes on the other hand look pretty weak. I wish they could have shown them in realtime with the game's engine, but instead they're kind of pixely.

Story: 6
The story of Lego Indiana Jones has so far followed the first movie pretty closely. The cutscenes are actually pretty long and are virtual reenactments of the film but replaced with Lego characters and injected with more attempts at humor. But since this is a video game, there's a lot of "padding" to the story to lengthen the gameplay. But hey, at least I got to do the boulder chase.

Overall: 8
Lego Indiana Jones wastes little time getting into the meat of the game. The action is relatively slow going compared to many other action games, but it's chock full of stuff to do and places to explore. Indiana Jones is a great setting for the newest Lego game and the DS is a great platform to play these games on. Next up is Lego Batman, which I'm equally excited about. But as for the first hour of Lego Indy? Worth every brick.